HOWYOUR WATERSOFTENERWORKS
SECTION 2
11
2B.SOFT WATERSERVICEANDREGENERATION
SERVICE
When the softener is giving you soft water,it is
called “Service”. During service, hard water
comes from the house main water pipe into the
softener. Inside the softener resin tank is a bed
madeup of thousands of tiny, plastic resin beads
(FIG. 7). As hard water passes through the bed,
each bead attracts and holds the hardness
minerals. This is called ion-exchanging. It is
much like a magnet attracting and holding
metals. Water without the hardness minerals
(softwater) flows out of the softener and into the
house soft water pipes.
After a period of time, the resin beads become
coated with hardnessminerals and they have to
be cleaned. This cleaning is called recharge, or
regeneration.
Regeneration is started at about 2:00 a.m. (facto-
ry setting) by the timer.It takes place in 5 stages
or cycles. These are:
FILL
BRINING
BRINERINSE
BACKWASH
FASTRINSE
1
2
3
4
5
FIG.7WATERFLOWTHROUGHTHE
SOFTENERINSERVICE
hardwater
IN
softwater
OUT
resintank
brinevalve
saltstorage
tank(salt
notshown)
resinbed
REGENERATION
¡FILL:Salt, dissolved in water, is called brine.
Brine is needed to clean the hardness minerals
from the resin beads. To make the brine, soft
water flows into the salt storagearea during the
fill cycle as shown in FIG. 8.
The length of the fill cycle is factory set to
providesoftening capacityfor anaverage family.
You can resetthis time when “fine-tuning”the
water softener,pages 18 through 20.
FIG.8WATERFLOWTHROUGHTHE
SOFTENERINFILL
hardwater
IN
softwater
OUT
brinevalve
saltstorage
tank
fillwater